CR.   569- 


CM- 


Duke   University   Libraries 

Report  of  the  C 
Conf  Pam  #284 


•eO^hO. 


REPORT  OF  THE  COMMITTEE  ON  RULES 

OF    TFE 

HOUSE  OF  REniESENTATIVES. 


The  Coiiimittce  on  Eules  and  OiScers  of  the  House  respectfully  report,  that 
they  hare  considered  the  proposition  submitted  to  them  for  changing  the  rule 
requiring  a  vote  of  two-thirds,  instead  of  a  majority,  of  members,  to  take  the 
House  from  open  into  secret  session,  and  are  of  opinion  that  its  adoption  would 
not  be  for  the  public  interest. 

They  believe  that  the  Kcprcsentatives  of  the  people,  in  the  discharge  of  their 
duties,  should  be  as  mueh^s  possible  under  responsibility  to  public  opinion,  and 
that  in  order  to  secure  this,  the  legislation  of  (Jongress  should,  as  a  general 
thing,  be  conducted  in  open  session,  and  that  secret  sessions  should  constitute 
the  exception.  In  secret  sessions  the  proceedings  of  the  House  are  of  record, 
and  it«  legislation  and  the  votes  of  members,  it  is  understood,  are  preserved  to 
be  eventually  made  public.  In  this  way  publicity  has  been  already  ordered  to 
the  legislate e  proceedings  of  the  Provisional  Government.  But  where  there 
is  immediate  publicity,  there  is  less  occasion  for  suspiciou  or  misrepresentation, 
and  your  committee  are  decidedly  of  opinion  that  this  should  always  be  given 
"where  it  can  be,  without  detriment  to  the  public  interest.  Explanation  of 
affairs  in  progress  prepare  the  public  mind  to  receive,  favorably,  results  ;  and  as 
the  acts  of  public  men  are  to  be  judged,  it  is  better  that  the  judgment  of  the 
people  should  be  founded  on  full,  than  on  imperfect  information  The  current 
knowledge  of  the  public,  and  the  suggestions  of  an  intelligent  press,  are  thus 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  deliberations  of  members  and  they  are  aided  by  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  feelings  and  interests  of  the  entire  community.  The  people,  too, 
are  taught  to  feel  an  interest  in  the  management  of  public  affairs,  by  having 
constantly  before  them  the  acts  and  proceedings  of  their  public  men,  and  their 
capacity  to  understand  what  is  discussed,  is  improved,  and  the  danger  is  di- 
minished of  their  allowing  an  engrossment  in  individual  business  to  destroy 
their  interest  in  proceedings  at  which  they  are  supposed  to  be  constructively 
present.  Unnecessary  secrecy  naturally  gives  rise  to  suspicion  of  private  ends, 
and  tends  to  destroy  the  confidence  which  should  give  moral  force  to  just  leg- 
islation. For  these  and  other  reasons  upon  which  your  committee  deem  it  un- 
necessary to  dwell,  they  are  in  lavor  of  as  much  publicity  being  given  to  the 
proceedings  of  Congress  as  the  character  of  the  subjects  discussed  will  permit. 
The  practical  difficulty  in  laying  down  any  rule  for  the  guidance  of  the  House, 
consists  in  the  impossibility  of  dra:viug  an  arbitrary  line  of  separation  betweeU 
those  subjects  always  proper  to  be  discussed  in  open,  and  those  in  secret  session. 
The  Constitution  of  the  Confederate  States,  like  that  of  the  United  States,  in 
Article  1st,  Section  ;>rd,  recognizes  the  necessity  of  this  distinction  being  made 
by  enjoining  upon  Congress  the  duty  of  publishing,  from  time  to  time,  a  journal 
of.  all  its  proceedings  except  ^'i^iu-h  ports  as  mai/  in  their  jiidcpnent  retjiiire 
secreri/."  The  proposition  submitted  to  the  House  attempts  to  draw  this  dis- 
tinction by  excepting  from  publicity  "  subjects  connected  in  some  way  with  the 


"movements  of  our.  armies  in  the  field,  or  the  diplomatic  concerns"  of  the 
country.'  Your  committee  are  of  opinion  that  establish  what  rule  we  may,  it  will 
rest,  after  all,  with  the  good  sense  of  the  House  to  distinguish  the  cases  in  which 
it  should  be  applied,  and  that,  if  there  has  been  any  abuse  of  the  power  under 
the  existing  rule  of  going  too  frequent  into  secret  sessions,  the  cause  is  to  be 
found,  not  so  much  in  the  provisions  of  the  rule  as  in  the  character  of  our  dis- 
cussions, and  the  difficulty,  in  the  present  condition  of  the  country,  of  debating 
fully  many  of  the  subjects  submitted  for  the  consideration  of  Congress  without 
speaking  of  matters  that,  "in  some  way,"  connect  themselves  with  the  condition 
and  movements  of  our  armies  in  the  field,  or  the  foreign  negotiations,  financial 
or  diplomatic,  of  the  country. 

In  the  convention  which  framed  the  constitution  of  the  United  States 
that  assembled  in  Philadelphia  in  the  year  1787,  the  proceedings  were  con- 
ducted entirely  in  secret  session,  and  "  so  extremely  solicitous,"  says  Luther 
Martin,  "  were  they  that  their  proceedings  should  not  transpire,  that  the  mem- 
bers were  prohibited  even  from  taking  copies  of  resolutions  on  which  the 
convention  were  deliberating  or  extracts  of  any  kind. from  the  journals  without 
formally  moving  for,  and  obtaining  permission,  by  vote  of  the  convention,  for 
that  purpose." 

Lord  Mahon  in  his  History,  of  England,  in  speaking  of  the  similar  policy 
pursued  by  the  Continental  Congress,  says,  that  by  the  inviolable  secrecy 
observed  in  their  proceedings  "  they  added  greatly  to  the  effect  of  their  final 
measures  and  bore  on  all  public  occasions  the  appearance  of  entire  concord  and 
undivided  vigor." 

Your  committee  on  examination  of  the  early  proceedings  of  the  Congress  of 
the  L'nited  States,  and  the  rules  that  governed  in  that  body  down  to  the  period 
of  the  secession  of  the  Southern  States,  find  that  it  was  in  the  power  of  any  one 
member,  at  any  time,  on  simple  motion,  even  without  a  second,  to  take  the  Hous6 
into  secret  session. 

This  rule  was  adopted  on  the  17th  of  February,  171I1,  at  the  second  session  of 
the  second  Congress,  under  the  administration  of  General  Washington,  and 
was  in  the  following  words  : 

"  That  whenever  confidential  communications  are  received  from  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  the  House  shall  be  cleared  of  all  persons  except  the  mem- 
bers and  the  clerk,  and  continue  so  during  the  reading  of  such  communications, 
and  during  all  debates  and  proceedings  to  be  had  thereon ;  and  that  when  the 
Speaker  or  any  other  member  shall  inform  the  House  that  he  has  communica- 
tions to  make,  which  he  conceives  ought  to  be  kept  secret,  the  House  shall  ia 
like  manner  be  cleared  till  the  communication  be  made ;  the  House  shall  then 
determine  whether  the  matter  communicated  requires  secrecy  or  not,  and  take 
order  accordingly." 

This  rule  under  the  government  of  the  United  States  has  remained  the  same 
to  thfe  present  time.  The  power  under  it  of  going  at  the  motion  of  a  single 
member  into  secret  session  has  not  been  often  exercised  in  later  years  in  times 
of  pefl.ce,  but  it  was  the  habit  of  Congress  during  its  early  histoiy,  and  even  up 
to  a  period  some  time  after  the  inauguration  of  General  Washington  lo  conduct 
much  of  its  proceedings  in  secret  session.  The  Provisional  Congress  of  the  Con-  - 
federate  States,  which  met  at  Montgomery,  changed  the  rule  so  as  to  require 
not  only  the  motion  to  be  made  by  one  member,  but  to  be  seconded  by  another 
and  left  it  finally  to  the  body  after  going  into  secret  session  to  decide  by  a 
majority  vote  whether  it  would  return  into  open  session  or  continue  in  secret 


session.  Upon  the  assembling  of  the  Congress  of  the  Permanent  Government, 
at  Richmond,  the  rule  was  further  moflified  so  as  to  require  not  only  a  motion 
and  second,  but  a  majority  vote  of  the  House  to  be  taken  in  open  session  to  carry 
the  proceeding  into  secret  session. 

As  the  existing  rule  of  the  House  is  more  rigid  against  secret  sessions  than 
any  that  has  prevailed,  either  in  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain,  or  in  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States,  or  under  the  Provisional  Government,  your  Com- 
mittee think  it  would  be  unwise,  by  any  change  of  its  provisions,  to  put  it  out 
of  the  power  of  a  majority  of  the  House  at  any  time  to  protect  itself  against  the 
indiscretion  of  a  member  in  having  its  proceedings  made  the  means  of  conveying 
improper  information  to  the  enemy,  and  that  it  would  be  best  to  leave  the  power 
with  a  majority  of  the  House,  to  determine  according*  to  circumstances,  and  as 
occasions  arise,  whether  particular  subjects  should  be  discussed  in  public  or  in 
secret  session. 

JOHN  PERKINS,  Je.,  La. 

R.  L.  MONTAGUE,  Va. 

WM.  P.  CHILTON,  Ala. 

GEO.  N.  LESTER,  Ga. 


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